Real people. Real voices.

In reflecting on the academic year that is now winding down, perhaps foremost in my thoughts is the privilege I’ve had of engaging with so many of you through 28 university town halls with faculty, staff and others, 28 student focus groups, 28 meetings with councils of trustees—all of them focused on System Redesign, including our efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and regarding university integrations. In addition, I’ve met with probably half of the elected members of the General Assembly multiple times this year—many members even more—to advocate for our System. If we throw in the normal engagements with our board members, trustees, student government leaders, union leaders, members of our various advisory structures, and the countless bespoke community town halls and other meetings, the amount of conversation taking place regarding the future of the State System is remarkable.

These conversations with real people have been robust, rich, and wide ranging, and the following five observations have risen to the top:

1. The promise of higher education is real and it is powerful: We see it in the eyes of our students. In some of my meetings I’ve used a focus group protocol that involves polling the audience around questions drawn from national surveys about why students choose to attend college. The overwhelming majority say they chose to pursue a degree because they know it can be a bridge to opportunity for themselves and their families. We are that bridge.
2. Higher education is at an inflection point: It needs to fundamentally retool itself in order to serve students today and in future. We hear it in the voices of our students—including Brandon and Zuri—who want to feel more welcomed, more included by the university community they chose to be part of and in which they invest their hard-earned dollars. We hear it in the voice of Emma who shared about the tremendous anxiety and other challenges she is negotiating and for which she needs more supports than are available as she travels courageously along our bridge to opportunity. We hear it in the voice of Wilhem who began his educational journey at a community college before enrolling in one of our universities, which he did despite the obstacles in the way of transfer students. And we hear it from Christine, an adult student, who is determined to obtain the degree she believes will accelerate her progress in life but requires more flexibility than is available in an environment geared towards residential students. The voices of these and countless other students have informed our work on System Redesign, on the diversity, equity and inclusion, and on the university integration plans that will come to the Board soon.
3. We have tremendously talented, mission driven people in our faculty and staff: I heard that in conversations with Jill and Darrel, who are thinking hard about how best to engage colleagues in their disciplines at other State System universities so they can offer their students a broader and richer set of educational opportunities. I heard it from Jamie, who is inspired by the opportunity to improve student success by diversifying the curriculum. I heard it from Kenny, Santiago, and Gwen, who are sharing with and learning from colleagues across the State System about how to make all of our students feel welcomed and secure in increasingly diverse campus communities.
4. Our engagement with elected leaders matters. Our elected representatives in the General Assembly are developing a clear and practical picture of the critical role the state-owned universities of the State System play as engines of economic development and social mobility for this commonwealth. They are also seeing very clearly the challenges we face. I am even hopeful that we may see some movement towards resolution of policy differences that have stifled meaningful state action with respect to its higher education system; inaction that has contributed to our challenges. I speak here of the differences between two very credible policy positions that are not mutually exclusive: one insisting the future of public higher education requires its fundamental restructuring, and the other that it requires significant additional state investment. In our countless, radically transparent conversations around System Redesign and university integrations, I detect some migration towards the more nuanced view that both policy positions are correct, but neither is sufficient by itself to secure our future. The future of public higher education and the promise we hold out to Zuri and Brandon and Wilhem and Christine and the countless thousands who will follow require a partnership between universities and the state—a combination of our fundamental transformation and additional public investment.
5. Change is really hard. It is hard strategically, technically, and at a deeply personal level, it is hard emotionally. And because our communities are made of people, the impacts of those hardships show up in different ways. Change inspires a sense of opportunity and growth—something that fuels our planning processes with tremendous aspiration. Change provokes healthy skepticism—something that strengthens our thinking by subjecting it to critical review. And change provokes fear, a sense of loss, grieving, and even denial—something that shows up in accusations leveled against processes and people in efforts to deny our challenges exist despite the fact that they are very well known, very well documented, and are neither new nor news. 

Each one of these responses is real. Each one requires our compassion and support. And because I am an irrepressible, possibly romantic optimist, I believe each one is grounded in the passion we share for our mission and our students. Each reflects our good intent.

And that, above all else, inspires me to believe that we are on the cusp in Pennsylvania of something quite profound and maybe even historic—on the cusp of not just re-imagining, but actively reshaping public higher education as it can and ought to be for the 21st century.   

This level of inclusion and transparency is foundational to our System Redesign. We have and must continue to set a high bar on communication and consultation, but it is a bar worth clearing.